Holiday
by Ryeloza
Summary: A short Thanksgiving story.


**Disclaimer: **I still don't own _Charmed_.

**A/n: **I have been up for almost 24 hours straight and this idea was a bit spur-of-the-moment. I'm thinking that it might turn into a series of one-shots that each take place during a holiday (all stretched 10 years apart). I don't know if that even makes sense, but hopefully some of you can follow my sleep-deprived rambling. I was originally going to do 10 Thanksgiving stories all spread out 10 years apart, but it's three in the morning and tomorrow is Thanksgiving. So we'll see if I find the time to finish my original idea when I wake up tomorrow. And if you're still reading after all this nonsense, bless you.

-Katie

**Setting:** November 23, 1972

**One**

Victor pulled on his tie for the third time since they'd left the apartment. The damn thing was strangling him; oxygen had to be more essential than looking nice for his mother's sake. Of course Patty disagreed. They had been married for nearly three years, but they'd only been to his parents' house a mere handful of times; never for a holiday. She was so anxious that her uneasiness spread like a disease. Her fretting choked him nearly as much as the tie; nearly as much as the horror that would be enduring Thanksgiving dinner with his parents.

Even another year of Penny's not-so-subtle insults would be better than this.

"Dada! Dada! Up!" Prue wiggled her hands in the air, almost bouncing in her impatience to be picked up. Quite possibly this was because Patty was fixing the red bow in her hair for the seventh time.

"I'm almost done, Prue."

"Up! Up!"

Victor bent and scooped Prue up with one arm, still fiddling with his tie with his other hand. Slowly Patty straightened up, somewhat of a feat as she was eight months pregnant, and rolled her eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop playing with your tie?"

"You can stop any time. I can't wear this thing, Patty. Being here is uncomfortable enough."

"They're your parents. Do you think I want to be here today? I'd certainly be more comfortable with my mother."

"Then let's go to your mother's. Jeez, Patty, you act like this was my idea. I didn't want to come here." Victor tugged viciously at the tie. "This damn—"

"Victor!"

"—tie! Why won't it just come off?"

"I told you to stop messing with it!"

"Patty!"

Patty glared at him, raised a hand and froze his left arm; his hand still gripped the knot of his tie. Delighted, Prue began to laugh and clap her hands.

"Very funny, Patty. Let me go."

"Are you going to stop messing with it?"

Victor groaned. "Come on, Patty. Please."

Head slightly upturned, Patty crossed her arms over her very pregnant belly and ignored him. She was annoyed and probably even ticked off at him and while much of the time Patty was rather calm and magnanimous (someone had to mediate between him and her mother, after all), pregnancy seemed to bring out a stubborn streak so wide and ingrained that there was nothing to do but acquiesce to her demands. No matter how obnoxious or nonsensical.

He would never understand why she had agreed to this mockery of a holiday. His mother, who had always been demanding of him to an unnatural degree, was even more apt to criticize and belittle Patty. For some reason, she'd never liked Patty, and Victor knew that she blamed his wife for everything that was wrong in his life. He didn't make enough money—Patty's fault, since she'd had the audacity to get pregnant twice. He didn't look like he ate enough or dressed well enough or had a perfect haircut—all Patty's fault. Never mind that his whole life his mother had been his biggest critic; her treatment of Patty alone was enough to keep him away from his childhood home even on the best of days.

And there was always that little problem with Prue making things fly across the room and his unborn child apt to freeze any person who touched Patty's stomach. Not that either of his parents would ever think to touch Patty's stomach. Victor smiled at the thought. At the very least his parents' closed nature and sense of personal space was something to be grateful for today.

"What are you so happy about?" At some point while his mind meandered, Patty had deemed to look at him again.

"Just found a reason to be thankful."

Patty opened her mouth—to ask for what he was grateful or to made a snide remark he'd never know—and at the same moment, the front door opened. Dumbstruck, Patty's eyes widened considerably.

Victor's mother glared at them, her blue eyes narrowed. Subtly, Patty released the freeze on his arm and Victor removed his hand from his tie to better clasp Prue. His daughter buried her face in his chest.

"You've been standing out there for ten minutes," his mother said. "You shouldn't lurk in doorways and you shouldn't be out in this chilly air. I don't know what is wrong with you people."

"Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Mom."

His mother rolled her eyes and stepped aside to let them into the house. Victor chuckled and Patty elbowed him in the side. Ah, to be home for the holidays.


End file.
